TranscriptNovember 24, 2020 ~ Select Board Meeting

You're on. I said you're on. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. So, I will call this meeting of the Durham Board of Selectmen to order on Tuesday, November 24th, 2021. Um, we have four of the five selectmen present. Um, Todd, let us know that he was not going to be able to make it tonight. So, I'll call a quick roll. Just say something so everybody knows uh you're here. Rob Panto

here. Rich George here. and Mark Farren here. Okay. Any amendments to the agenda? just say um thank you, Rob, for running the meeting last week in my absence. I liked your little um thing that if you're speaking, you should turn your camera on. So, I think I'd like to continue that. Um, if everybody's okay with that. I thought that was a good uh thought that was a good um direction for the meeting. So, um, was somebody want to say something?

No, just thanks. It was it was a good time, but I'm glad to have you back. Yeah. I wish I could say it was a more um productive absence than it was, but it wasn't. So, yeah. All right. any uh looking at the list, I don't see anybody on the participant list that's note that you know not supposed to be here. Is there anybody that's here to make a public comment?

and and staff right now. So, okay, we'll move on past that. Um 4a action and discussion items, uh code enforcement. Bob, did you have a couple things you wanted to chat about? Yeah, I just I'm just going to speak to uh the junkyard issue. Um so you all we all denied Ken Carl his permit for a junkyard. Um he appealed that decision. It went to the appeals board and the appeals board sustained his appeal because I didn't site the home the land owner. Um, so after that I got into Androsco and Registry of Deeds to see what was what. Um, I know he's got a 300 by 300 foot

plot on Priscilla's land that he leases supposedly for the junkyard. Um, in the last year or two, that junkyard has just overgrown the 300 by 300. So, um I sent Ken Kyle a letter September 29th citing um screening for the whole property and that's what he was complaining about because his junkard is up on the top of the hill, but the whole property is a junkyard. So, I think what I have to do is site the homeowner

for an illegal junkyard and then um once that gets cleaned up, I'll decide whether Ken has his 300 by300 only and then I'll have him resubmit a fresh application for a junkyard. Um, do we know if if under state law you can even have a junkyard permit on leased land?

Yeah. So, um, the I'm reading the state law right now. Um, and the application A is name and address of the property owner and B is the name and address of the person or entity who will operate the site. So, it kind of says that you don't have to be the owner to operate a junkyard.

Rich, you something there? Yeah, I don't know if that's necessarily true. I think people that own junkyards are typically you you can operate it under another entity is what that typically those applications are derived from. It's not necessarily saying that you can operate one on lease land. It could be, but I doubt it. I think most people that own a business such as that would operate it under an entity rather than personal.

Yeah, I think that would be worth digging a little more into either speaking to someone. Yeah, I can do that. Eagle or Jack or something just to get a little bit because it's like well it if it's lease land is is the junkyard permit is it issued to in this case Carl or the

property owner? and who's ultimately responsible for the screening. You know, I I I'm a little I'm not sure that's clear. Yeah. And I agree because um he does say he leases it for a dollar a year from his mother. So I went on to Anders and there is nothing at all about any 300 by300. The property is totally owned by Priscilla. Um they actually have two dwellings on that property because there's no there's no lot for Ken's house in the back which

he has he's included his house is included in the 300 and 300 parcel that's for the junkyard. So it's really Yep. All right. It sounds like some research called for on this one. You furnished you a copy of the lease? No. No. And there's nothing recorded either. I don't lease I don't know if leases would get recorded in are you talking or

leases do get recorded for register the deed but they're for the lease more so than the for example like it's in my best interest to record it in case the building gets sold but the property owner would typically not record lease.

Okay. All right. And that's about that's that's about all I have. Um the rest of it I can deal with. All right. Does anybody have questions for Bob while he's while he's here? Okay. Great. Thank you, Bob. You're welcome. Have a good turkey day, guys.

Thank you. You, too, Bob. Thanks, Bob. Yeah. Okay, next. Um 4B is earned paid leave. And we had asked Ruth to do a little digging on what this meant for the town and she did a little homework on that. So Ruth, do you want to uh kind of brief us on what you uh what you found? And I'm curious what you know what your sources were like who you who you spoke with or where where you got your information.

Well, I got my information off the Department of Labor website. They have an FAQ section that's actually quite clear. Oh, good. with examples and stuff and then um also some of the information off of the MMA website. But um basically it does pertain to us. So I went back to 2019 and I filtered out all of the people who were part-time at that time and figured out a round number of what that would have meant for us in 2019. Um, and then I had created a a policy to go into our personnel policy for the earn paid leave. And basically, um, every 40 hours that somebody works as a part-time employee, they get one hour of earn paid leave. Um, you don't have to allow for partial hours. So, I put that in the policy that we don't allow for partial hours. Um, you can require that they take entire hours at a time. So, I put that in the policy, too, to try and keep it as simple as possible. And then go ahead Kevin.

I was say not is is paid leave different than just regular paid time off? Is it is are they restricted and are there restrictions on how it can be used or are we just talking about acrewing paid time off for part-time people or is this supposed to be for sick or I mean what it

it can be used for anything. Um, if you use it for a vacation, then your employer can request four weeks, up to four weeks of lead time on it. If it's an emergency, you're just required to tell your uh employer as soon as is possible. Um, so so you can use it for for sick time, any any time off that you need.

Okay. And this is specifically for part-time employees that don't already have some sort of paid time off benefit, or would it be in addition Would it? So it wouldn't if if a town happened to have a paytime off benefit, this wouldn't be an addition to it or would it?

No. As long as you have a policy that that matches the what the law is, you don't have to do something at a minimum. Right. Okay. All right. or comments on this? Rich, you're muted. I had one quick question, Ruth, and I I don't know if we

I don't know what the answer is. I don't deal with this on a particular day-to-day basis, but with respect to predium people, yeah, that's where I get a little because typically a pdeium person is not necessarily considered the same as an employee.

They're specifically um they're specifically included in the law and PDM people are paid on an hourly basis. if they were paid benefit of us as a town to have pdium versus just regular volunteer or not volunteer but just part-time employees. What is the difference in classification?

That actually would be a question I think for chief my my Yeah, I don't know whether it's just the way that the fire department says differently for them or how they I don't know why they they use pdeium instead of part-time. I thought like rich that pdeium you you weren't actually an employee of the organization that you were working for. Now, it might be that in for the case of this law, they've made a special inclusion for PDM, but I'm pretty sure that Rich is right that PDM employees are not I shouldn't have used the word employees, but PDM people are working for the town are not actually employees. Like we don't pay, for instance, we don't pay retirement withholding or anything like that on PD.

We pay FICA. Yeah. Yeah, they pay FICA. That's out of their check. I the only time I ever come across pdium or I don't personally come across pdium but like a lot of hospitals have pdium employees but they're not necessarily considered pdeium as far as like employees. They're paid at a different rate. They don't get the benefits etc etc etc. So that's

my understanding is that uh pdeium would match the the definition of an employee. So, if it came down to it, the Department of Labor would would consider them an employee because we cover them with workers comp. We pay FICA on them. They have uh they're paid through us. They're not an independent contractor. Um so, they're they meet the definition of an employee.

Your interpretation? Yeah. My only push back on that is they're able to make their own schedule as PDM people. And that has always been the bigger caveat in the past where you can't tell a PDM person, hey, you're working Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. They have that flexibility. Now, I don't know if the law has changed, but that's, you know, I was once a 1099 employee and what they call a PDM employee and we have PDM employees at my wife's hospital that they fall under a different subset than a traditional employee. Um because otherwise they're an employee. What would be the definition of a PDM then?

Right. Like what what it's a distinction without a difference if that's true. So sounds like we should dig on that one a little bit more. Maybe have Jack look at it or or um So I'm not sure it makes a difference because as far as the earned paid leave law, it it it spells out PDM. I mean it specifies PDM employees are

Yeah. True. I just I just don't get the difference in classification, right? And if so, it's for every 30 it's for it's one hour for every 30 hours. Ruth, could you 40 hours? Every 40 hours you work, you get one hour of of paid leave.

Yeah. So, I think with you know, with respect to the chief, you can't have pium people that work more than 40 hours a week. 40 hours a year. A year. Not just in a single week. Oh, it's a year. I think it makes it even more gray. I don't get how that But okay.

And then how would you even how do you even take that hour of leave if you're a PDM employee because you're not regularly scheduled. I guess you just say I'm taking an hour of leave. Yeah. Just give me an extra hour of pay this week

basically. Yeah. Basically what we're talking about essentially. Yeah. You know I would say that can't be right but we are talking about state exactly here. Exactly. Um okay. Um so Ruthus has um put forth a policy um recommendation. Um I don't know. I think you guys feel ready to vote on that tonight or do we want to maybe you know I think it's usually best to take a meeting and you know see if if there are any questions as it's written here. I like that it only includes whole hours. Um anybody have any thoughts on that or Rob? Yeah, I mean I think it's well written. I don't have any issues with the policy, but anytime we're adopting a a policy that's going to have lasting effects, we probably ought to have Jack look at it.

Yeah. Thoughts. So, yeah, when you ask maybe, you know, um let him know that, you know, the board had a lot of questions about PDM versus part-time and maybe he sees something and can offer some clarification there. So, okay.

Ruth, I didn't have any issue. No, I agreed. I think Yep. that state law or was that something you came up with? No, that's in the FAQs. Okay. All right. Excuse me. Anything else on the earn paid leave? No. Okay. No. Okay. Next is the Union Church Committee.

Yeah. It'd be nice to try and organize it, but I'm not entirely sure that much much is going to happen um before next spring. Um I don't know. What did you guys think of the the rewrite? opportunity to read it. Okay. Well, then we'll we can put it off till next week or probably actually that last December one because next week is the one or the next December one is the one where um we talk about the manager, right?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the only significant changes were you referred to the town manager and as leading the committee essentially, right? Yeah. I skipped through looked similar to the first one. Yeah. The biggest change that I I I had heard that you guys wanted was that you didn't want the committee to be doing the project management. You wanted an employee to do the project management. Um, and since the town manager is going to be starting, then it makes sense that that would be the person that would be the project manager.

Yeah. Yep. So, so yeah, but if everyone hasn't had a chance to review, that's fine. We can postpone it, but I don't see any need for changes on my end. All right. All right. Why don't we put it on that second December meeting, Ruth, just for for a put it on there for a vote and um we'll deal with that then.

metric. Yes. Sorry, I was typing. So, um, the number of COVID cases that have been, uh, over the past couple weeks, um, I would expect that to increase and continue to rise, uh, through the holidays. Um, and I think that it's really important to be really clear about what the operations of the town are going to be in different situations. um both for the employees sake but also for the resident's sake so that they know that that this is what's going to happen if if this happens. Um so there's not any you know second guessing.

that you something you model from another town or where did this come from? Yeah, I took it from South Portland. Um South Portland's is quite more uh complex. Um, some of the metrics on it I didn't even really understand, frankly. So, I I paired it down to be very very simple.

And why why are we talking about Andrew Scoggin andor Cumberland County? Because our school is in Cumberland County and because a lot of our employ our residents actually work in Cumberland County. Well, what does that have to do with the town office? Well, people who would be visiting the town office would be spending a lot of time in Cumberland County.

you all see that? Thanks, Rob. Yeah, good. Thanks, bro. basically plagiarized this and sent it to my staff, so works for me. But we're already we never stopped operating as if we weren't in the yellow anyway. So, um well, there's a lot of town offices that are only taking um appointments still.

Yeah. recommendations were okay. I mean, we've put safeguards in place at the town office. We're we're already limiting the number of people in the building at a time, right? Yeah. Um so I think we can operate like that. There hasn't been a change. The Andrew Scoggin County is in the yellow now, but uh Cumberland is still in the green, right?

Yep. They're just they're watching it, but yes, it is still in the green. Okay. Um and I we've never stopped working from home as as much as practical anyway. Um, frankly, there's not a lot of people except for me who can work from home

that can do it. Yeah. So, um, yeah, just so I'm clear, if one of them goes red, then one county goes red, then we go to that level. Yeah. Is that the thought? Yeah. I had a convers I I got some reservations if Cumberland goes red that we're going to go red.

I I I had a conversation with the chief too and and his his point was that you know if if one of the counties is red around us then there's no reason for us to be open. I mean we're not we're not a ne necessary thing really. I mean people can wait for a couple weeks to register their cars. Well, and a county is an arbitrary line, right? I mean, I passed through three counties on my way to work. So,

it is an arbitrary line. Yeah. this? I'll stop sharing. Um, yeah. Yeah, thanks. Um, I don't know. I just I I'm I'm hesitant to um like if if uh like for right now we're saying because Andrew Scoggin is yellow and we're going along doing our thing and merely because Cumberland might go yellow all of a sudden we're going to change the town office to be appointment only even though nothing's really changed in our own Now,

I'm not I'm not for that. Yeah. I I I don't know. I'm not I'm not I feel like we need we have enough common sense to manage this as we go and if it becomes a you know, as things become more if they become more um serious, we can talk about what next steps are. But I I don't want to just

advocate decision to a one-page document. Okay. I I think it's pretty serious. I I think that the number of cases and the number of deaths over the last couple of weeks has really increased the risk for everybody. Every not everybody wears a mask. We don't take it that serious. Okay. I've had that conversation with you and every time CO comes up, we use it to what are we going to do? What are we going to do? If it's that serious, why why why don't we take it serious?

barriers. I do wear a mask every time I get up from my desk. I didn't say you were in particular. I'm just saying if we're working with the public and that's the mandate. We don't have masks on every time and it's just every time it just seems like we're trying to make more rules with co co but we we look like hypocrites. I can say the same thing when I go over to the fire department.

point is we already have some uh guidelines in place and the key and the key is that we need to enforce them, right? I mean, we got to be consistent, but this may help us be consistent. I mean, the way you wrote it, it's both essentially right now, one countyy's in the green, so we would still operate in the green. It's only if both counties are in the yellow. But you may we may want to just note that it's a you know I

guess if uh if there's no selectman's meeting I I'd like to have something in place that allows you to just either you know message the chair talk to Kevin and make those changes because we only meet every two weeks and things can happen pretty quick. So, I I think I'm okay with some sort of guideline that allows you to uh make a decision and do it as long as we like follow up at the next meeting and then the selectman discuss it and either modify it or or come up with a new plan. But I do think it's a good idea to have something in place that allows you to make that decision. It's important to me to be able to have um a measure of why you would do something, you know?

Yeah. It's just like it's not like, oh, well, I think the cases are going up and so I think maybe we need to go to appointments now. It's more there's got to be some sort of metric by which you you make these decisions. And and I mean I don't know if there's another metric that you guys think that should be included then, you know, I I I'm certainly open to it, but I thought that perhaps the the color system was the best metric to to to gauge

as far as appointments. I mean, in theory, you could make an appointment as you show up, right? Like if no one's there and you show up at the town office and it's it's still closed to the public, but they could knock someone could either meet them outside or if there's no one else in, they come in.

So even though it's it says appointment only, but I mean that's how we've been handling in my office. The offices have been closed since March. You just knock on the door and someone will come meet you and and take care of what you need. So maybe maybe the wording needs to be different. Uh maybe it's like the buildings closed to public or something like that. I don't know.

We are like you said we have a we already have a limit of number of people in the lobby, right? And so really the only thing that by appointment only versus you know limiting um people in the lobby addresses is people waiting outside, right? because whether they're coming in by appointment or um waiting in a line outside, there's only so many people going to be in the building at the same time under either situation, right?

Yeah. It just gives you a little more control over what's going on if the door is locked. Okay. And maybe that's the answer. It's locked and it's one at a time inside. Yeah, that's that's what I mean by appointment. And we also I mean, we've had cases where we go outside and wait on people in their cars because they're uncomfortable um about coming into the office.

Yeah. I mean, we make every effort, right? That's kind of where I'm saying like that's, you know, that's a common sense in situational assessment and decision, right? Versus a, oh, Cumberland went yellow today. The sheet says what? Well, now we're going to appointment only just because another county went yellow. And that that's I struggle with that.

Yeah, I struggle with that also. And I think if we're going to close or change things, it it shouldn't rest upon any I think it's we can do like we did last time and we can have a quick Zoom meeting and discuss it before we close or set any further restrictions in my opinion.

Yeah, I think that's probably the best direction. if I could just have a quick meeting and decide if we want to make any changes. have a um we have a situation where the rating of of counties, you know, gets I don't know what the situation might be, but it could be something else unrelated to um these color ratings. might be as Ruth mentioned some other metric that pops up that we're not even thinking about. But I think to Rob's point where what we would want Ruth to be able to take the initiative is to say, okay, things have changed. I'm I want to call a meeting of the uh select board to um discuss

potential changes to what we're doing at the town office. leave it in the town manager's hands? Um I don't know. And we don't Yeah. No, I'm just saying like I don't know. I mean, I totally agree. We can get a meeting, but we may not be able to get three or four selectmen. uh well we only need three within a day and that's how fast things change in some of these instances like or say someone at the town office actually had it or had an exposure and we had to close the town office anyway. So I think there needs to be I have no problem with somebody at the town hall even if it's just with a phone call with the chair or or the liaison but I I

don't think we need to have it rely on a meeting. I think we meet as soon as we can. I I'm totally for that. But I think she ought to have the ability to say yes or no. I mean, for a day or two, it isn't going to have much effect on the public service anyway. So,

you know, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, we can kind of treat it like similar to what we do with like a storm closure type of thing where, you know, Ruth usually pings me and says, you know, what do you think? and we kind of go, well, yeah, we should close the office for today or well, let's close it for the morning, but we should be okay by the afternoon or, you know, whatever it is. But, um, yeah, I would say she gets

I probably be okay to be honest with you guys. I'd be okay if we just left it upon Andrew Scoggin, but when you start incorporating other towns and factors into it where, you know, I'm just not comfortable with that. If you want to leave it at Andrew Scoggin, I'm comfortable with that. But when you start bringing in other communities and I mean majority of the cases in Cumberland County derive from Portland. I mean so if somebody pops over the bridge in Freeport all of a sudden we're I grant it we're in another county but I mean

so let's just leave it to the county that we live in. We don't need I mean so if that were too if we just left it to the county of Andersken though, wouldn't we be open for appointments only at this point? Because Androskagan is the one that's yellow. that's what we want to deem as the what's it called with yes if that's what we

but well but yeah but I so I agree with the and only thing but that's where I'm at like I don't necessarily think just because the county is yellow that we should be going to appointment only I don't think I'm there too but

there's a scientific basis for that you know yeah I'm I'm I'm 100% with you too but I I also want you know Ruth and her staff to feel safe but it you know I have a hard time if people bring up to me I don't feel safe if I walk in your in your space and you're dealing with public and you don't have a mask on. Okay, that I just I'm tired of hearing that. Um, and I've addressed that before privately. Um, so if if we have that concern that it's a public or somebody feels for their safety, well perhaps they shouldn't be working right now. Um, and

well, it's not just our safety either. It's the safety of the residents that come into the office as well. If the residents are not safe, they make the choice whether they feel safe, they make the choice. They they can go and register their car online. If that's the case, I mean, that's what a lot of majority of the people are coming to you for. We've already had that discussion. So, if they don't feel safe, stay home. That's the whole point of everybody. Not everybody has to stay home. If you don't feel safe, I I more than invite anybody to stay home, but it shouldn't be for everybody. And there's some people that do need to come to the town hall for whatever specific reason it is.

well um what if we did this? What if like to Rob's point like if if Ruth feels like we need something needs to change on how we're due to COVID in terms of hours of the town office um she would check in with with u me as the chair and if we I

don't know either disagreed or thought it was a bigger issue then we could call a meeting for the of the board to discuss it. I think if the c if the county goes red, that's simple call. That's a different story. That's a different sign right now. County goes red.

But the yellow is just what does it what does that mean? At this point, we're going to have increasing cases. We know this. Yeah. hear from you on a reasonable timeline, just proceed down the line, you know, until one of us Yep. Agreed. And you know, and I think um I think it's unlikely that that we'll disagree, Ruth. I just think I just I just am not comfortable leaving it to a to a docu like a matrix like, okay, we have this and we have this that means we do this. Yeah. I just think it needs more, you know, flexibility and thought to be able to come into the uh the process there. But

yeah. Moving on. Uh the giving tree. So we're we're doing our own giving tree this year. Ruth going it alone. the program this year. Is that essentially what happened? They do have somebody running the program. There was some confusion. Um there wasn't really an understanding of how the program was run. Um, and so, you know, I had a conversation with Diane, and the fact of the matter is, frankly, that they're not getting a ton of applications anyways. They actually only got one Durham application. Um, and so we have put it back out there as ourselves, but then I wanted to have a policy on it because if people are donating money to the given tree, giving tree, I want them to know where the money is going. So, it it, you know, we may we sometimes get substantial amounts of money. So, I think it's important um that people understand where the money goes.

Ruth, you mentioned had one one person in Lisbon. Um has is that's with Lisbon. Has anyone reached out to you? Has that number gotten larger or I don't know, Becky. I I saw a couple more tags on the tree. Did we get more than one application so far?

Hang on. There we go. Um no, we've only gotten one application so far of a family in need. We've had a couple people come in and take the tags and we've had a lot of people call and ask about donating and ask about if we're doing it, but they haven't come down. Uh we posted applications at the school and we posted them over at Geting Go. We also called a couple of local churches and asked them to mention it um on their Sunday service to just try to get the word out there.

So, anybody have any other questions about this policy or comments or suggestions or whatever? Mark, did you have something? No. No. My only question would be Ruth, what did you have in mind in terms of were we thinking like if we get an abundance of cash, we're going to donate it to a specific organization? Is that the question at hand? Well, well, the the policy reads that the if we get an abundance of cash, the first thing that we do is we we purchase gifts for anybody whose gifts are not taken care of. The second thing we do is we give um money, not money, gift cards for like a Hannifford or a Shaws to the family, you know, up to $25 per family member, figuring that this is a holiday time and they're going to want to have a holiday meal and holiday meals can be quite expensive. And then the rest of the money I would propose goes into the the Durham Home Heating Fund.

Okay. good idea for you know if we have excess funds and we've met the needs of the giving tree. All right. And I'm going to move that we um approve the Durham giving tree policy for 2020 as presented. Second. Rob seconds. Any further discussion before we vote? All right. I want to call your name. Let's say uh if you were in favor or not. Rob Panto.

Yes. Rich George. Yes. Mark Farren. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Okay. Thank you, Ruth, for taking the initiative on that. Um, okay. That takes us through action and discussion items. Um, the fire chief is not here tonight. Um, but he submitted his report and I just um

I sent you guys some communication I was having with a resident in town um who has a background in municipal administration and basically asked for their input on and feedback on the RFP and and they had some of the same thoughts that we've expressed earlier that maybe the um the focus of the RFP

as it currently is is maybe not broad enough. It's pretty focused on um the equipment in the facility and it it doesn't really overtly ask for an evaluation of overall town needs uh for fire and and EMS. Um and this person

made a suggestion is you know to maybe reach out to some other towns for that have done similar projects and um get some um do some benchmarking with them. How did they word their RFPs? what kind of project did they do? And we've already gotten a couple of uh responses to that. So, um I know the chief had mentioned in his report that he was looking to send the RFP out like tomorrow. Um but I um my feeling is that

there's a little bit more work uh to be done here to get to make sure we're asking for the type of um analysis we want to want to get. So, any board members have questions or comments on that or No, let's wait make sure we get the right report.

Yeah, exactly right. You know, if we're going to spend money, you know, it's it's more it's more than the equipment's obviously a very important piece of it, but it's above more than that as well. So, okay, Calvin, we will move to you for the road commissioner report. So, uh, we've been working on ditching on Beaverwoods Road. Uh, we've, uh, um, we was going to haul winter sand yesterday and we decided against that with a poring rain, we would have been hauling, uh, we would have been hauling liquid sand. So, we, uh, we'll do that next week. Uh, we continue to pave driveway aprons. Um, and, uh, we finished up today paving. Uh um we don't know what day they're going to close the asphalt plant. Um it could be this week, could be next week, we never know. So they don't give you a clear date and year to year that changes. So they said just expect any day they could close. Um uh they continued working on the

grounds, parks, and town properties, cleaning up uh fall debris and cleaning the bathrooms. Um, Krooker Krooker, we still have to do the shoulders in Davaleail and Rangdale and I'm looking uh vast Krooker and they're we're hoping to start it this week. I'm thinking it looks more like next week at this point, but uh they should be wrapping that up so that uh they're in place before the wings fall down over the pavement. Um we're going to continue ditching right up until frost or snow, one of the other stops us. So, you never know. I mean, it could be next week it could shut off like it did last week. It just shut off like a faucet and we went from we went from construction to snow plowing overnight. We're going to switch to our winter hours starting Friday. So, we're a week late or so this year, but we're going to uh start that on Friday.

Um check for an update on the Wheeler. We actually drove over there today to get some concrete answers and it's not looking good from what I got today for a report was basically they said Canada is closed and that's where the bodies come from. So they're not getting any answers and they said we can call them every day but I don't know if it's going to do any good because the country's closed. So uh I they're still going to call me tomorrow and give me u whatever the answer they get is but doesn't look very promising when they told me another town. And the truck's been there for a month and they were just told it's going to be the end of January now for that truck and theirs was there before ours. So, we're going to have to make a few repairs to the truck we got to make it planned for the war, I guess. Um, I got both the stream crossing applications submitted. U, those are in. We should get an answer on that. I I think those

are Feb sometime, as I recall, last year, midFebruary, they they went up to 125,000 instead of 95,000. They've gone up. So, I think they realized that we weren't getting these done with the money that was allotted. So, we'll see how those go. Um, and I've been working on trying to find a way to get rapid COVID testing done. uh checked with our checked with our um Conentra that we deal with and never got an answer back from them. Uh talked to uh Walgreens um Walgreens said basically just go on line, make an appointment. Usually it's the same day you go in, get the test, and within an hour you got the results. Um just in case I have to get rapid testing to keep people plowing the road. So that's as far as I've gotten so far. I'm trying to see if I can narrow that down a little more, but that's I just haven't come up with a solution as to what happens if we have to quarantine and I have all my guys

plowing the roads. I can't send them all home. So, I've got to come up with a talk to Freeport and they said the rapid testing is probably the only answer that uh and they have crews big enough that they can split the crew. So, they have a crew half a crew in plowing and the other half home and they swap back and forth. We just don't have the resources for that. We don't have we don't have a a transfer station. We don't have a sewer or water department where other towns can draw from those departments to for plow drivers. We don't have that option. So um but the the Walgreens thing looks pretty promising. So they're saying that's um you I'm going to call them tomorrow and see if they will actually just let us send drivers over without making the online appointment. But that's that would be the next step. So that's about what I've got.

I just had a question. Are you looking to just get ahead of the game to COVID test these people just now? Just No. No. I'm just saying I mean or just in case something arises, right? Just in case something happens. Hopefully it doesn't, but if it does, I just need to make sure that I don't leave fire trucks on the side of the road and end up with a foot of snow on the road. That's

Yeah. So my my last question in regards to CO only because I mean you know it's it's a thing but um I know in the past years you guys have utilized the upstairs as somewhat of a bunk house. Do you have another alternative or what you were thinking on that or is because I don't I don't know if you guys could probably that's probably not a good idea this year.

but I mean we're all when we're plowing we're all right here in the same building quarters. So yeah, I don't know if it's possible. I don't Yeah, I'm not in the plowing business, Calvin. I mean, maybe Rob could defer, but I didn't know if like we could assign trucks to individuals when they come in, they just really just go to their truck instead of conjugating in the building and so forth,

right? Yeah, I agree. Like I mean I think the the guys sitting around the table drinking coffee on a break, I think I don't think that can happen, right? Yeah, you need to stagger it for sure. Yeah. Well, I have more drivers this year, so hopefully uh that I'll be able to to do some of that. I can't guarantee all of it, but we'll make an effort to to try and stagger as much as we can. Give people time off and have another have have other people come in, take their place, and and relieve the other drivers. So they shouldn't be

that place that place is big enough though that I would think that you know even if they were all taking a break at the same time you just got to keep them apart from each other right keep them separated. Yeah. So I mean typically we go out at the same time we come back at the same time I could stagger so they're coming back at different times.

Whatever you got to do just so even if they're back at the same time they're not like hanging out in close proximity to each other. Right. Well, I I probably will just have half the trucks go out and then I'll just have them so that they're going they're coming back at different times,

right? I think they can come back at the same time. I think you just got to really practice the social distance aspect of whe when you guys are collectively on the law, per se. building when you know you know that's the type that's the stuff that's going to you know keep you going you know rather than because I mean if you're worried about testing after something's happened then it's too late

we've we've moved all the the tables out into the big garage they're all way away from each other so we've taken steps there and you might even I I mean it sounds crazy but you might even like where you've got a lot of space now set up your break tables now and put freaking name put tape on the table say this is you know this is Tim's spot and this is John's spot and this is Dave's spot and and just that's it and they're more than six feet apart and that's where they take their break. So um

yeah that's that's what we've been doing since last spring what we've done. So we we'll continue that. In fact, we just talked today, but we have to get more tables for more drivers. And so, um, we we're pretty we're well spaced, but I I think that rotating the times they come in will also help so that we're not all sitting in the same room at the same time.

Yeah, I think all that stuff together will help. Yep. Okay. Thank you, Calvin. Yep. Anything else? Any other questions for Calvin? Yeah. Um I don't have that much left. Um now that the election is over, we've slowed down quite a bit. So, uh we are catching up on all the things that we didn't get done because of the election. Um and working on the budget. Um and the other thing I need to tell you guys is I'm going to be on vacation uh Thursday and Friday, the December 3rd and 4th. and the following Monday which is the 7th and I will be back in time for the meeting on the 8th.

Okay, enjoy. Any questions? Hey Ruth, I didn't get to give you a call today, but I'll try early next week. Okay. Yep. No, we can reference to the renovation. I should be around Monday and Tuesday. Um Okay. And obviously you can give me a call anytime anyways. It doesn't really make a difference.

Okay. Thanks. Okay. Yep. Um, I'm going to move that the board go into assessors section. Second. Rich seconds. Um, if you're in favor, say I when I call your name. Rich. Yes. Rob. I. and Mark. Yes. Okay. We are in assessor section. Um I have the document up. It's a pretty simple one. You have situation where the square footage of a home was uh overstated. Um and so the recommendation is for uh an

abatement of $417.15 about this before um we move forward with a motion? uh grant an abatement in the amount of $417.15 the property on map one lot 69. let me hear your vote when I call your name, please. Rich. Yes. I Rob.

Yes. Mark. I. And I'm an I, too. All right. You get me back in my Navy days now, buddy. Sorry. get to a military. And Ruth, do I have to move us out of assessor's section, too? Yeah, I think so. All right. I'm moving that we leave assessor's section and return to our regularly scheduled program already in progress.

Second. Rich seconds. Um, let me hear you vote when I call your name, please. Rich, yes. I Bob, I. Mark, yes. And I'm a yes. Okay. Uh, a consent agenda. Um, okay. We have three here. Um, consent agenda or are we good? All right. Then I'm going to move we approve the consent agenda as presented.

your name please. Rich I. Rob I. Mark. Yes. And I am a yes as well. Okay. So, uh, selectman's comments. Our next regular meeting is Tuesday, December 8th at 6:30 p.m. and then Tuesday, December 22nd at 6:30 p.m. Um, any other announcements, Ruth, that you can think of? No, not that I can think of.

Okay. All right, then. I'm going to move that we adjourn. when I call your name, please. Rich, I. Rob, yes. Mark, hi. And I am a yes as well. We are adjourned. I went two for two. Thanks that we still went two for two with Mark